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Sign up todayLas madres (Spanish Edition)
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Learn moreDe la galardonada autora bestseller de Cuando era puertorriqueña, nos llega una poderosa novela sobre la familia, la raza, la fe, el sexo y el desastre que transita entre Puerto Rico y el Bronx, revelando las vidas y los amores de cinco mujeres, y el secreto que las une.
Se hacen llamar “Las Madres”, un grupo muy cercano de mujeres que, junto con sus hijas, han creado una familia basada en la amistad y los lazos de sangre. Su historia comienza en Puerto Rico, en 1975, cuando Luz, de quince años, la niña más alta en su academia de baile y la única negra en un mar de cisnes de piel clara, pequeños y delicados, se lastima de gravedad en un accidente de auto. Trágicamente, sus padres, ambos científicos multilingües brillantes, también mueren en el accidente. Huérfana ahora, Luz sortea las presiones de la adolescencia mientras lidia con las secuelas de una lesión cerebral, cuando dos nuevas amigas entran a su vida, Ada y Shirley. Los días de Luz quedan consumidos por dolores y molestias, y su memoria después del accidente queda por completo en blanco, pero sufre episodios que envían su mente a otros lugares y momentos que no puede compartir con nadie más.
En 2017, en el Bronx, la hija adulta de Luz, Marysol, desearía que su madre la comprendiera mejor. Pero, ¿cómo, si Luz apenas recuerda su propia vida? Para ayudar, la hija de Ada y Shirley, Graciela, sugiere que el grupo entero se vaya de vacaciones a Puerto Rico como una oportunidad para que Luz desentierre recuerdos largo tiempo enterrados y Marysol aprenda más sobre los primeros años de su madre. Pero a pesar de toda su cuidadosa planeación, dos huracanes, uno tras otro, alteran su bienvenida y sacan a la luz un secreto que hace estallar sus vidas. En una voz que canta con calidez, humor, amistad y orgullo, la celebrada autora Esmeralda Santiago desarrolla una historia sobre la sexualidad, la vergüenza, la discapacidad y el amor de las mujeres dentro de una comunidad sacudida por el desastre.
ENGLISH DESCRIPTION
From the award-winning, best-selling author of When I Was Puerto Rican, a powerful novel of family, race, faith, sex, and disaster that moves between Puerto Rico and the Bronx, revealing the lives and loves of five women and the secret that binds them together.
In Puerto Rico in 1975, fifteen-year-old Luz is the tallest in her dance academy and the only Black girl in a sea of petite, light-skinned, delicate swans. Tragically, she is seriously injured in a car accident and her brilliant, multilingual scientist parents are both killed in the crash. Now orphaned, Luz navigates the pressures of adolescence and copes with the aftershock of a brain injury, when two new friends enter her life: Ada and Shirley. Luz’s days are consumed with aches and pains, and her memory of the accident is wiped clean, but she suffers spells that send her mind to times and places she can’t share with others.
In 2017, the Bronx, Luz’s adult daughter, Marysol, wishes she better understood her. But how can she, when her mother barely remembers her own life? To help, Ada and Shirley’s daughter, Graciela, suggests a vacation in Puerto Rico for the extended group, as an opportunity for Luz to unearth long-buried memories and for Marysol to learn more about her mother’s early life. But despite all their careful planning, two hurricanes, back-to-back, disrupt their homecoming, and a secret is revealed that blows their lives wide open. In a voice that sings with warmth, humor, friendship, and pride, Esmeralda Santiago unspools a story of women’s sexuality, shame, disability, and love within a community rocked by disaster.
ESMERALDA SANTIAGO is the author of the novel Conquistadora and the memoirs When I was Puerto Rican and Almost A Woman, which was adapted into a Peabody Award–winning movie for PBS’s Masterpiece Theatre. Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, she lives with her husband, documentary filmmaker Frank Cantor, in New York, and Port Clyde, Maine.
ESMERALDA SANTIAGO is the author of the novel Conquistadora and the memoirs When I was Puerto Rican and Almost A Woman, which was adapted into a Peabody Award–winning movie for PBS’s Masterpiece Theatre. Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, she lives with her husband, documentary filmmaker Frank Cantor, in New York, and Port Clyde, Maine.